In the Shadow of Giants
by Spiga
Summary: It's amazing how quickly a building-sized prehistoric nuclear monster from beneath the sea can make your relationship troubles seem moot.


L Word belong to Showtime, Godzilla belongs to Toho.

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><p><strong>Tokyo, Japan 1994 prologue <strong>

"So would you say that Godzilla is still a important figure in Japanese culture to this very day?"

The question elicited a small chuckle from Mr. Ogata, who ran his index finger and thumb through his small white mustache. It was strange how much the old man resembled his long deceased father-in-law Professor Yamane. His English was strong, not heavily accented but strangely intoned.

"Please, _Gojira, _Miss Martin. Your grandfather was a great writer and journalist and a good friend but he was terrible when it came to pronouncing Japanese names." The elderly business tycoon, referred to by many as the Japanese Bill Gates sounded a bit wistful when he referred to the late Steven Martin as his friend and the young woman interviewing him was almost tempted to ask if maybe he was more than just a friend. Emily Martin was well aware of her grandfather's sexual orientation, the rumors surrounding Mr. Ogata and anyone who was well aware of their shared history could put two and two together. It wasn't that hard to figure out.

She didn't however, saving that particular series of questions for latter in the interview. She still had a lot of ground to cover.

"_Godzilla_-" Mr. Ogata said, as though tasting the flavor of the word and finding it wanting. "-reminds me of the terrible American film. Please, let us use the proper pronunciation." He was of course referring to the infamous New Line film made to cash in on the recent resurgence in slasher movies as well as reported Godzilla sightings off the coast of Haiti. It famously recast Gojira from a mythological dragon monster who spat fire and battled war gods to a bear sized dinosaur-like creature that terrorized people in an apartment building in New York City. It was largely critically panned at the time, for relying on blood and gore as well as blatantly stealing several scenes and concepts from Ridley Scott's Alien film, including giving Godzilla corrosive blood and a ending in which an infant Godzilla inexplicably burst from the heroine's stomach as a set up for the sequel, which _thankfully _never saw the light of day.

"Okay then, Gojira it is." Emily said with a smile of her own. Ogata's office was chilly, winter was quickly coming to Japan and Emily had been surprised to discover a thin coating of frost covering the windows when she awoke that morning. Ogata had not betrayed his embarrassment when he explained that the heating system in his building needed repair. They sat on the coaches in the center of the room, facing each other.

"As for your question Miss Martin, I'd argue that in some ways Gojira has become a somewhat important figure in _global _culture. Especially after the 1954 Tokyo Bay disaster that so many blamed on the monster." Ogata took a moment to clear his throat before continuing. "But before I can expand on that point first we must consider just what _form _of Gojira myth we're talking about. First, we have the purely mythological Gojira, the legend that was so prevalent throughout many Japanese islands and fishing villages well into the fifties and sixties."

"Such as Odo island, where you're originally from yes?"

The smile disappeared from Hideto Ogata's face at the mention of his long forgotten home. For a moment, his eyes glazed a bit as if remembering-

_The rain, the thunder, the power of the storm. People screaming, his family screaming. Running through the muddy streets, gale force winds tossing around people and debris like toys. The wind howling, _roaring, _and the Americans' helicopter suddenly flying over the village, crushed and crumpled and somehow _torn _as if by some great and terrible claw. Hideto screamed over the noise, over the madness, over the roar of the hurricane as it tore his village apart but then he looked up and realized it was not the storm that was roaring. Storms did not have horrible mouths full of sharp jagged teeth to roar with. Nor did they have horrible hellfire red eyes that promised death as they looked out over the defenseless fishing village…_

Hideto Ogata blinked, snapped back to the present and went on.

"Yes, _yes_! Gojira was a prominent figure in our mythology on Odo island. In fact we had an annual festival in his honor. That is where I met Doctor Yamane, Emiko and of course your grandfather. When the…the hurricane tore through our village and flooded it with radioactive seawater brought in from the tides the devastation and latter the radiation sickness were both blamed on Gojira. The village elders said that Gojira had been angered that we had allowed outsiders-especially westerners- to see his festival. According to my father, in his grandfather's time many islanders considered Gojira to be the king of the gods…more powerful even than the Emperor himself. I don't know how much you know about our history, but you must believe me when I say that back then such a belief would have been considered treason. Depending on what Emperor was in power, it could even lead to your imprisonment and execution. The Emperor was believed to be divine, a living god, like the Pharaohs of Egypt. Dragons were respected of course, but to say some minor dragon deity worshipped by a few fish catching bumpkins was more powerful? It would not have made you very popular to say the least." Ogata paused for a moment to catch his breath and take in Emily's reaction. Needless to say, she was surprised by his candor and wasn't yet experienced enough to hide it.

"Then of course you have the modern Gojira legend. The cryptozoological 'Godzila' that is said to have caused the epidemic of fishing disasters in the late forties and early fifties."

"He was also blamed for the destruction of Odo Island, wasn't he?" Emily asked. Hideto nodded and continued.

"Several other small fishing villages as well. And of course, the infamous Tokyo Bay disaster. And to this very day occasionally someone off the coast of Japan will see a whale or surfaced giant squid and call it Gojira. There are books and Manga written about the monster here in Japan, several movies have been made about him. I even hear that Tristar Pictures has commissioned the director of Stargate and Independence Day to make a film about the Gojira legend. People aren't seeing sea monsters in their soup anymore- especially not in your country- but the legend still persists. After the incidents in 1954, this little island legend caught the attention of the entire world and held it because while the Gojira I grew up with-the legendary dragon from the depths of the sea, the fire breather. The warrior dragon- is very different from what you grew up with. Your legend-and the world's legend- of Gojira is a story about nature striking back. It's a tale of a creature created by American fascism and war mongering, a mutant brought to life to wreak havoc on mankind for its misdeeds." Ogata shook his head and tented his fingers.

"It's utterly ridiculous of course. It was a new mythology for a new age, an age of radio waves and atom bombs. Born out of Japan's fear of what Fat Man and Little Boy did to our country and anger at your country for defeating us after our Emperor promised us victory. My father's generation worshipped ancient spirits and gods and put its faith in mysticism. _My _generation and yours puts its faith in science and worships technology. We all need our legends I suppose, at the end of the day no matter how far we've come we're still apes trying to explain away the unexplainable."

"So you don't think your father-in-law's theory -that Godzilla was a dinosaur mutated by H-Bomb testing- was 'ridiculous'?" Emily blurted out. Hideto Ogata's brow crinkled.

"Professor Yamane-my wife's _father_, a man who took me away from my devastated island home and gave me the tools I needed to build this-" he gestured to the office around them, and indeed to the entire building, which he owned. "- was a man of science. It was _not _his theory that the sea disasters were caused by a monster. That little urban legend resulted in him being ostracized by the scientific community." Hideto's anger grew as he spoke, old wrongs brought to the forefront of his mind. His normally even tones rose with passion. "Because of that rumor, he was thought of as a crack pot in the same category as the madman Doctor Mafune, who believed he discovered a giant dinosaur he called Titanosaurus living at the bottom of the ocean. As the various fools who all co-authored the book 'Anguirus: Killer of the Living', a book that opined that repeated nuclear tests would awaken dinosaurs from their slumber beneath the earth at which point they would emerge and _eat us all_. He denied it of course, but it was to late and the damage was done. The doctored photos of him handling a trilobite discovered on Odo Island sealed his fate." Ogata slumped a bit in his chair, saddened. "To this day, Professor Yamane is considered to be a figure of cryptozoology, not paleontology. He loved me like a son, I owe everything to him and to see his legacy so tarnished…" He muttered something in Japanese. "It brings my heart great sorrow. He was a genius, many of his theories about plesiosaurs were ahead of their time by decades, now he is a joke and his many accomplishments are forgotten."

"I thought your grandfather would have told you the truth about him. They were good friends." Ogata said a bit acidly. Emily bit her lip, clearly she had struck a nerve.

"If Professor Yamane didn't believe Godz-…Gojira was responsible for the disasters, then why did the government send him to Odo Island?" Ogata's response was a bitter laugh of derision.

"Yamane was not on Odo Island on account of the government! He hated the government because he believed they were cowards! He thought that Japan should have resisted your country to the end! He didn't understand that if we continued to fight your army would have invaded Japan, and the suffering caused by that invasion would have been worse than the explosion of twenty atomic bombs! Back then, many people shared Yamane's beliefs, as did many people in the government, if you had invaded the entire population would have risen against your soldiers and all of Japan would have become a slaughter house. Your country knew this, as did many people in my own and thankfully cooler heads prevailed. Yamane was a great scientist and in many ways a great man, but in many ways he was very old fashioned and he did not understand international politics or military theory. No, he was there for your grandfather. Yamane had a great love for the smaller Japanese islands, he was born in a fishing village much like myself though he moved to the mainland at a very young age. When Steven wanted to go to Odo Island as part of the boating disaster story he was working on Professor Yamane offered to be his guide. The myth that Professor Yamane was sent by the Japanese Government to Odo Island to look for some prehistoric monster and that he was latter frightened into silence by some joint conspiracy of the American Government and my own…well, it's just that. A myth. A blatant lie constructed by the tabloids to feed into their sea monster angle. Surely Steven must of told you this?"

"He never talked to me about 1954, most of what I know I learned from my father and research about my grandfather." Emily explained.

"A pity. Your grandfather occasionally gets dragged into this too. Supposedly he was present when the fabled "Oxygen Destroyer" was detonated in Tokyo Bay and destroyed Gojira. In truth he was enjoying breakfast with myself, Professor Yamane and Emiko that morning. Supposedly he was bullied into silence too…as was I, when people connect me to the Gojira tale." Hideto chuckled darkly. "Lies. All lies. There was no Gojira, Miss Martin. He exists only in myth. No, instead what poisoned Odo Island was water contaminated by H-Bomb tests conducted by your government, blown in by a hurricane. There is every reason to believe that the destruction wreaked on Tokyo Bay was also the result of H-Bomb tests. I was on Odo Island in 1954, I witnessed the hurricane and…there was no monster."

-_No monster with hellfire red eyes and a gaping maw lined with jagged teeth, no monster with three rows of dorsal plates shaped like maple leaves, no monster that trampled the homes of his friends and families and loved ones. No monster…no monster…no monster…-_

Ogata swallowed hard and shook his head again.

"Gojira exists only in rumor and fantasy, but he was very real to Japan in the fifties and sixties and soon the word Godzilla was on the lips of everyone in the western world too. Much like the flying saucer hysteria of the previous decade, soon everyone was afraid that every time someone detonated a nuclear bomb it would wake up some terrible behemoth that would start wreaking havoc. Back then, we didn't know the full affect that the detonation of such weapons have but we let our imaginations run wild and thus monsters were born. In many ways, I think the Gojira legend is part of the reason the Cold War never erupted into a fully fledged conflict and your country stopped nuclear weapon's testing so quickly. No one in power would say it of course, but I think everyone was secretly afraid of releasing another Gojira. That is the reason why I say the modern Gojira myth had such a large impact in global culture Miss Martin because in many ways I believe that that myth is the only reason we have a global cultural. If everyone wasn't so afraid of him, we'd have all nuked each other back to the stone age long ago! He represents to us a fear of what happens if we lose control of the power we have. He is our fear of atomic energy personified."

"So, in closing Mr. Ogata…"

"In closing Emily, no. Gojira, Godzilla. Dragon. Dinosaur. Mutant. It doesn't matter."

Ogata flinched a bit, as he heard Gojira's roar echo in his memories.

"He does not exist."

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><p>[The following is the transcript of Tape #3-28, discovered in Grid 24 Area 2 of area formally known as Los Angeles.]<p>

Female Voice, Identified as Subject Emily Martin: This tape is a record, left behind for [name is drowned out by sound identified as vocalization of Subject G] _fuck. _Fuck! Damn it move! Move! Let me through! Stop!

[Sound identified as the detonation of artillery fire. Sound identified as Subject G discharging primary energy weapon.]

Unidentified Female: Jesus Christ, it fucking breathes fire!

[Static, data corruption likely due to radiation spike associated with Subject G's primary energy weapon.]

[Sounds identified as the footfalls of Subject G, followed by vocalization of Subject G]

Emily Martin: Here in Los Angeles, time had been turned back sixty five million years. This is my report as it happens. It is currently 4:45 A.M. on December 31st 2004...hell of a Christmas Present.

[Static]

Emily Martin: A prehistoric monster the Japanese call-

[Static]

Unidentified Male Voice: Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my Go-

[Static]

[Vocalization of Subject G]

Emily Martin: I can hardly believed what has just happened, it's…oh no! Oh _no_! Oh _shit_. Los Angeles is…Los Angeles _is on fire_. Oh no, _Bette_. I hope to God you and Tina made it out in time.

[Static]

[Detonation of artillery fire, sound identified as the Vocalization of Subject R, followed by Vocalization of Subject G]

Emily Martin (Panting, out of breath): [Static]…has just soundly defeated the other…Jesus. There's nothing…nothing that can stop it. Every resistance in the city, human or otherwise has been just…just smashed aside. Or burned. Now there is no resistance to-

[Static]

Emily Martin: Time is…currently 6:30 A.M., Los Angeles has been turned in a sea of fire. Beneath the flames, millions of people lay dead or drying. Neither man nor his machines can stop this creature. I'm saying a prayer…a prayer for the entire world.

[Sound identified as footfalls of Subject G. Vocalization of Subject G.]

Emily Martin: He's coming.

[Footfalls, Vocalization.]

Emily Martin: I pray…I pray for someone to stop this thing. If anyone finds this recording, please, no matter the cost do not allow another city to fall to [Vocalization of Subject G].

Emily Martin: This is it. Time is currently 6:31. This is Emily Martin for United World News, signing off.

[Sound identified as Subject G charging primary energy weapon.]

Emily Martin: [incomprehensible, possibly "Fuck you Ogata"?]

[Sound identified as Subject G discharging primary energy weapon]

[Static]

[Vocalization of Subject G]

[Tape ends]

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><p>Posted in the L Word section out of fear of Godzilla fans lynching me. If any white knights out there object, I'll move it to the crossover section.<p> 


End file.
